by John Devera

Created on: January 16, 2009   Last Updated: March 20, 2012

The difference between the soul and the spirit is a question of the meaning of words, of semantics. That's why people can discuss this question indefinitely, because they are discussing their personal definitions. In the context of philosophy and religion, there are several possible answers; you get to choose your best answer.

Science

Science does not distinguish between a soul and the spirit. Both are the same thing, the animating consciousness that gives the human being moral authority and integrity.

It's hard to believe, but it is, however, perfectly true, that once upon a time, and not too far long ago, scientists actually tried to measure the soul. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Dr. Duncan MacDougall attempted to measure the precise weight of a human right before and right after they died and the soul vanished. Those experiments are now pretty laughable. The soul, science agrees, is something that cannot be seen, touched, felt or in any way measure. In other words, the human soul is outside of real scientific inquiry. Even as great a scientific mind as DaVinci attempted to dissect the brain to find the seat of the soul. We can now sense that, speaking entirely from a scientific point of view, that the soul or spirit, are outside the domain of science.

Religion

World religions, with just a few exceptions, posit the existence of an immortal soul which some believe can be destroyed, but which normally is meant to exist forever, or at least outside of time and space. While we are alive, the soul manifests itself separately from the consciousness. What that means is that, if one believes in reincarnation, then the soul transmigrates from one existence to another, with normally no memory of previous incarnations. That is because the soul is separate from our consciousness, and it is only in our consciousness that we retain memory. In another example, in those religions that believe that the soul exisits previous to birth, we do not have any recognition of our soul's existence, no memory of that pre-birth time, simply because there is no consciousness before birth. The soul exists without consciousness.

In Christianity and Judaism, religions based on the Bible, the answer is a little more complicated. Most religions use the terms soul and spirit synonymously. In Biblical writings, though, there appear to be very specific differences in the terms. The words that get translated from Hebrew and Greek that are used for spirit are significantly different

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>